What is a Law Internship?

As a graduate of legal studies, you might want to arrange yourself a nice law internship to get practical experience in legal processes in a specific legal area of your preference. Legal interns assist in doing research, filing documents and dealing with paperwork, listening in on interviews with clients, and getting the hang of day-to-day duties.

You can easily find a placement at an attorney's office. There are a number of opportunities in law corporations as well as private firms, government or non-profit legal agencies, or you might find a spot working with a judge.

Internships are usually unpaid. You might gain academic credits for your work, if completing an internship is part of your curriculum, but the biggest compensation will be the valuable professional connections you make on the job. Even if you do not get hired as a direct result of your internship, it will boost your chances of landing a job right out of college. Not that legal graduates are famous for faffing around unemployed for long, anyway.

What Does a Law Internship Do

There are certain skills that many law interns have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, problem-solving skills and research skills.

Learn more about what a Law Internship does

How To Become a Law Internship

If you're interested in becoming a law internship, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 67.7% of law interns have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 7.3% of law interns have master's degrees. Even though most law interns have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Law Internship

Top Law Internship Jobs Near You

Law Internship Career Paths

In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of attorney you might progress to a role such as partner eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title executive vice president.

Top Careers Before Law Internship

Internship (51,064 Jobs)

23.1 %

Legal Extern (10,986 Jobs)

16.4 %

Law Clerk (75,014 Jobs)

14.1 %

Top Careers After Law Internship

Law Clerk (75,014 Jobs)

17.3 %

Attorney (10,991 Jobs)

11.2 %

Legal Extern (10,986 Jobs)

10.7 %

Average Salary for a Law Internship

Law Interns in America make an average salary of $39,394 per year or $19 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $63,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $24,000 per year.

Average Law Internship Salary

$39,394 Yearly

$18.94 hourly

$24,00010%

$39,000Median

$63,00090%

See More Salary Information

What Am I Worth?

Roles and Types of Law Internship

The role of a law internship includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general law internship responsibilities:

Provide collaborative support to leu related projects
Ball is recruiting for our summer 2017 interns. Applicants must be currently enrolled at an accredited college or university. In addition, applicants must be enrolled fall semester 2017. this will be a full-time position for the summer. Position is located in broomfield, colorado the ball corporation internship program is a summer program that provides candidates with: practical experience on relevant projects while working with designated mentors a competitive salary housing assistance relocation reimbursement in-house training group activities there are many recreational opportunities along the colorado front range. Our state is famous for its skiing, hiking, biking, mountain climbing
Be challenged with managerial projects and tasks research emerging issues of law foster relationships with brokers

There are several types of law internship, including:

Paralegal

Role:

A paralegal is in charge of substantive legal work. Typically, they serve lawyers who are so busy building a case that they need help sorting out all of the legal work. That's where you come in.

Paralegals take pride in their responsibilities by administering their knowledge of the law and legal procedures. It can be a great thing to have a paralegal on the case because the law will determine what direction a lawyer may swing a case.

While you definitely need a working knowledge of what the law is, you really only need to obtain an associate's degree for this line of work. Sure, you could probably spend your entire life going through and memorizing every single law out there, but laws change all the time so chances are you're going to have to look it up anyway.

Average Salary: $49,943
Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Legal Extern

Role:

Let's rip the Band-Aid off, shall we? As a legal extern, you're probably not going to get paid. But what you take away from these opportunities may prove more useful in the longterm. What you'll take away from a legal externship will be experience and academic credit. Which really is priceless, if you ask us.

You'll have experience right off the bat within a legal setting. This definitely will give you an edge against your other colleagues. A legal extern is very similar to an internship, but is usually much shorter. So while you're getting the experience, you don't have to commit to it for as long.

Since being a legal extern won't last very long, it's a good way to see if you even want to work in the legal industry. It'll give you a glimpse into everything you will be doing, like conducting client interviews, making a court appearance, and even some legal research and writing. Just think of it as a very in-depth glimpse into "a day in the life" of a legal profession.

Average Salary: $47,238
Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Law Clerk

Role:

Imagine this. You grab a cup of coffee and head to the court. With enough coffee flowing through your veins, you're now ready to chat with the judge about legal questions, granting orders and even the construction of documents. Who are you? You're a law clerk and this is just the beginning of your day.

The rest of your day may be spent going through complaints, looking at petitions or motions, and even reading through pleadings so you can help develop a case. Then, you need to type up some judicial opinions, decisions, or citations. There's lots of work to do as a law clerk, so you need to be organized so you don't waste a single minute.

As a law clerk, you'll probably spend a lot of time with judges. You're there to provide assistance on legal determinations while also writing up research-based opinions that are relevant to the court. The best part of becoming a law clerk is that you don't have to wait very long to become one. You could be a student by day and a law clerk by night. Unless you have night classes, in which case it might be switched.

Average Salary: $55,916
Degree: Bachelor's Degree

States With The Most Law Internship Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active law internship jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where law interns earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Law Internship Jobs By State

Rank	State	Number of Jobs	Average Salary
1	California	474	$46,604
2	Florida	335	$30,366
3	Texas	245	$26,912
4	New York	207	$72,968
5	Georgia	153	$24,227
6	Illinois	148	$47,252
7	Massachusetts	132	$69,755
8	Washington	126	$49,896
9	Virginia	118	$39,031
10	New Jersey	107	$46,060
11	Pennsylvania	104	$44,684
12	Colorado	97	$38,475
13	Minnesota	83	$40,541
14	Michigan	80	$39,773
15	North Carolina	75	$29,675
16	Arizona	72	$32,603
17	Tennessee	68	$32,319
18	Ohio	63	$38,595
19	Maryland	59	$42,363
20	South Carolina	55	$26,835
21	Missouri	53	$35,663
22	Wisconsin	42	$29,683
23	Oregon	39	$34,148
24	Indiana	34	$26,643
25	West Virginia	31	$37,502
26	Iowa	28	$31,489
27	Kentucky	27	$30,479
28	Arkansas	27	$24,908
29	Alabama	22	$23,824
30	North Dakota	21	$51,820
31	Mississippi	21	$24,656
32	Utah	21	$26,539
33	Connecticut	20	$60,005
34	Louisiana	20	$26,875
35	Wyoming	19	$31,567
36	Nebraska	19	$25,434
37	Nevada	15	$44,161
38	Alaska	15	$34,715
39	Hawaii	14	$44,204
40	Kansas	14	$32,238
41	Montana	12	$43,414
42	Rhode Island	11	$62,999
43	Delaware	11	$57,874
44	New Mexico	11	$28,310
45	Idaho	10	$39,055
46	Maine	9	$58,323
47	Vermont	8	$61,038
48	South Dakota	7	$41,709
49	New Hampshire	6	$56,658
50	Oklahoma	6	$21,383

Law Internship Education

Law Internship Majors

Law

24.0 %

Political Science

18.5 %

Criminal Justice

9.8 %

Law Internship Degrees

Admissions

Most Popular Majors

Business

Communication

Legal Research And Advanced Professional Studies

Law

Psychology

Top Skills For a Law Internship

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 13.2% of law interns listed litigation on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and problem-solving skills are important as well.

Litigation, 13.2%

Legal Issues, 8.9%

Trial Preparation, 6.5%

Legal Memos, 5.4%

Real Estate, 3.5%

Other Skills, 62.5%

Choose From 10+ Customizable Law Internship Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Law Internship templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Law Internship resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

Law Internship Demographics

Law Internship Gender Distribution

Female

53%

Male

47%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

Among law interns, 53.1% of them are women, while 46.9% are men.

The most common race/ethnicity among law interns is White, which makes up 53.9% of all law interns.

The most common foreign language among law interns is Spanish at 43.8%.

Online Courses For Law Internship That You May Like

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Show More Law Internship Courses

Job type you want

Full Time

Part Time

Internship

Temporary

Best States For a Law Internship

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a law internship. The best states for people in this position are New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Law interns make the most in New York with an average salary of $72,968. Whereas in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, they would average $69,755 and $62,999, respectively. While law interns would only make an average of $61,038 in Vermont, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. District of Columbia

Total Law Internship Jobs: 163

Highest 10% Earn:

$147,000

Location Quotient:

7.8

$84,598

Avg. Salary

View 163 Law Internship Jobs In DC

2. New York

Total Law Internship Jobs: 207

Highest 10% Earn:

$128,000

Location Quotient:

1.3

$72,968

Avg. Salary

View 207 Law Internship Jobs In NY

3. Massachusetts

Total Law Internship Jobs: 132

Highest 10% Earn:

$120,000

Location Quotient:

1.15

$69,755

Avg. Salary

View 132 Law Internship Jobs In MA

Full List Of Best States For Law Interns

How Do Law Internship Rate Their Jobs?

Top Law Internship Employers

Most Common Employers For Law Internship

Rank	Company	Average Salary	Hourly Rate	Job Openings
1	U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission	$165,628	$79.63	16
2	State Attorney's Office	$146,079	$70.23	9
3	The HON Company	$61,010	$29.33	8
4	American Red Cross	$55,245	$26.56	12
5	Harris County Attorney's Office	$54,780	$26.34	25
6	Jacksonville Area Legal Aid	$53,459	$25.70	11
7	Community Legal Services	$52,945	$25.45	25
8	U.S. Department of State	$52,913	$25.44	11
9	United States Department of Justice	$51,221	$24.63	24
10	United States Courts	$49,369	$23.74	8

Updated February 6, 2023

What is a Law Internship?

What Does a Law Internship Do

How To Become a Law Internship

Law Internship Career Paths

Top Careers Before Law Internship

Top Careers After Law Internship

Recent Job Searches

Average Salary for a Law Internship

Roles and Types of Law Internship

Paralegal

Legal Extern

Law Clerk

States With The Most Law Internship Jobs

Number Of Law Internship Jobs By State

Law Internship Education

Law Internship Majors

Law Internship Degrees

Top Colleges for Law Internships

1. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2. University of Chicago

3. University of Texas at Austin

4. Northeastern University

5. Florida State University

6. Stanford University

7. University of Richmond

8. University of California - Davis

9. University of Washington

10. Boston University

Top Skills For a Law Internship

Choose From 10+ Customizable Law Internship Resume templates

Law Internship Demographics

Law Internship Gender Distribution

Online Courses For Law Internship That You May Like

Best States For a Law Internship

How Do Law Internship Rate Their Jobs?

Top Law Internship Employers

Most Common Employers For Law Internship

Law Internship Related Careers

Law Internship Related Jobs

What Similar Roles Do

Resume For Related Jobs